(Author: Reuben Musiker, Vol. 63, #3, Chanukah 2008)
This overview of Jewish bookshops and booksellers in Johannesburg (which is by no means comprehensive, and indeed is selective) is divided into two parts. Part One consists of bookshops which are owned by Jews, and the stock of which is inherently, though not exclusively, Jewish. Part Two includes Jewish booksellers whose bookshops contain a variable degree of Judaica but whose stock is far wider, covering many branches of knowledge.
PART 1: JEWISH BOOKSHOPS
Rubin’s Bookshop
Lipman (Lippe) Rubin was the pioneer founder of the landmark Johannesburg bookshop ‘Rubin’s Bookshop’, which existed from the early days of the Rand right up to October 1996, when it finally closed. Rubin was born in Shenburg, Courland in 1860. He received his Hebrew education at Hebrew schools and Yishivot in Dvinsk, Vilna and Birzh, and remained a Hebrew scholar all his life. He also received a comprehensive secular education at a government school and had a good knowledge of German and Russian, in addition to his thorough knowledge of Hebrew and Yiddish. A deeply orthodox man, he maintained his religious principles faithfully under all the varied and often difficult circumstances of his life.
Rubin came to Johannesburg in 1896 and at first struggled hard to make a living. He was among the city’s first Hebrew teachers and soon opened the small bookshop which grew over the years, practically into an institution. He became a prominent member of the City’s first Talmudical Society, established just three years before his arrival and lectured in Mishnah in the Ponevez Shul. A fervent Chassid, he took the initiative in 1897 to found the Chassidic Congregation in Doornfontein, and was a pillar of strength to this community through all the years of its existence. He became the Congregation’s Reader and year after year found him officiating at the services.
Rubin was also a Specialist Mohel, travelling throughout Southern Africa. During the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), he went to Cape Town where he played a prominent role among the Johannesburg Jewish refugees. The work he did there, coupled with his piety and uprightness of character, won him the friendship and respect of such spiritual leaders as the Reverend A P Bender, Reverend Abo Leib (the Ponedele Rav), and Rabbi Moshe Chaim Mirvish. While in Cape Town, Rubin was also a bookseller.
On his return to Johannesburg in 1907, Rubin reopened his Hebrew Bookshop. The shop rapidly became a meeting-placed for all interested in Yiddish and Hebrew literature and journalism. A cultured and scholarly man, Rubin diligently read the various Jewish books and periodicals that came into his shop and was always ready to discuss articles with his customers. He carried the religious injunction of Tzedakah faithfully into life, and many of his customers who experienced financial hardship found in him a valued friend who helped them with recommendations and securities at the Hebrew Benevolent Association. His son-in-law, Alec Braun, was associated with him for many years in his business.
Rubin’s bookshop was at first situated in Commissioner Street and later relocated to Harrison Street in Central Johannesburg. The enterprise specialized in Jewish books and religious requisites but also had some general books. In later years, until its closure in 1996, it moved to Louis Botha Avenue, Highlands North.
Of how many booksellers can it be said that their hobby is giving away books! What is not so well known about Rubin, and what made him a rara avis among the bookselling fraternity, was that he was continually doing this. The Rand Daily Mail of 2 June 1946 reports that in that year alone he had donated 1400 books to the Johannesburg Public Library and some 15000 to schools in both Black and White communities. He even ran a circulating library at the beginning of World War II. This was in due course donated to ‘Books for Troops’ and several thousand books were supplied to a mobile library in the Middle East. His philanthropy knew no bounds. One of Rubin’s treasures was a Bible in stone print, probably one of six printed in Amsterdam about 1400 AD. Rubin donated this almost priceless incunable to the Johannesburg Public Library without any fuss or ceremony.
It is a matter of considerable pride to the author of this article to know that he was related by marriage to Rubin through his great-aunt Chaya Dvorah Rubin (nee Musikant), who was his. This fact is evident from a family tree compiled by the author’s late brother, Mendel Musiker. The Rubin family resided at 124 Van Beek Street, Doornfontein, within a stone’s throw of the author’s childhood residence at 22 Currey Street. The author recalls frequent visits to Rubin’s home, which remained the home of his daughter Molly Braun after Rubin’s death on 22 January 1948.
A matter of interest concerns Rubin’s forename. It is given in the South African Jewish Yearbook as ‘Lipman’, whereas the obituary in the South African Jewish Times gives it as ‘Liebman’. To his family and friends he was known as Lippa Rubin.
Chabad House
Wendy Levitt, the present Manager of the Chabad House bookshop, has kindly provided the following information. The bookshop was started by Monty Arenstein in his garage, probably late 1970s, early 1980s, to provide people with the opportunity to have access to Torah literature, both Hebrew and English. In 1986, he handed his stock over to Chabad House and it was relocated to Chabad’s premises in Yeoville, where is occupied two book shelves. After four years in Yeoville, it was relocated to Chabad’s first store in the Fairmount Centre and three years later to a larger shop, also in Fairmount. Two years ago, the business was moved to the Balfour Park Shopping Centre.
The philosophy of the Lubavitcher Rebbe was that every home should have Jewish books. The rationale is that books are our heritage, our Torah and our spirituality. A Jewish home is affected even just by the presence of the books; how much more so when they are studied and read. It was with this approach in mind that, as part of the Rebbe’s Mitzvah campaigns, bookstores and libraries were started by Chabad all over the world, making books available at reasonable prices, and ensuring the dissemination of Torah literature everywhere.
Kollel Bookshop
This was opened in the Kollel at corner Grafton and Muller Streets, Yeoville, in 1970. The shop has always stocked a wide range of books on every topic of Jewish interest, a range of religious books as well as music discs, CDs and other items of Jewish interest. It has always tried to maintain a completely apolitical situation by stocking books for all the various sectors of the Jewish community.
All aspects of Judaism are to be found, including topics ranging from the Holocaust, Jewish history, Ethics of the Fathers, Halachah and Jewish philosophy. A special feature of the shop has always been the vast range of wonderfully illustrated books for children of all ages. Some books are simply delightful stories containing easy to understand lessons on conduct and behaviour for a proud Jewish child while others explain the different chagim or give added dimensions to the meaning of being Jewish.
The Kollel Bookshop is the official stockist of all prescribed Judaic books for the Jewish day schools. It is also the official distributor of Art Scroll Books in South Africa. Art Scroll Books are the leading publishers of Judaic books in the world and produce the best selection of Jewish literature.
In 1997, the Kollel Bookshop relocated to the Pick ‘n Pay Shopping Mall in Norwood. In 2007 it moved again, to William Road, Norwood.
South African Zionist Federation
Of historical interest is the fact that the 1929 South African Jewish Yearbook carried an advertisement and list of hundreds of books of Jewish interest, available from the South African Zionist Federation Book Shop. The Federation was situated in Progress Buildings, corner Commissioner and Von Wielligh Streets at that time. It is not clear when this bookshop ceased to exist.
PART II: JEWISH-OWNED JOHANNESBURG BOOKSELLERS
There have been a good many bookshops in Johannesburg, owned by Jews, but which were not inherently Jewish in their stock. These shops did contain some Judaica, but this was not their primary focus.
With regard to the earliest Jewish Booksellers in Johannesburg, the Dennis Edwards Directory of 1890 shows that of eleven booksellers and stationers in Johannesburg at that time, two were Jewish. They were Israel Rudolph at 762 Market Street and Mendelssohn and Scott at 635 Market Street. Emmanuel Mendelssohn, in partnership with R S Scott, also founded the Standard and Diggers’ News, a pro-Republican newspaper which lasted until the British troops occupied Johannesburg during the Anglo Boer War in 1900. This confirms that Jewish booksellers were already in business in Johannesburg shortly after the founding of the town. It is of course most likely that their book stock contained a range of subjects beyond Judaica.
Arcadian Bookshop was located in Jeppe Street in the 1950s and later at the corner of Harrison and President Streets in the City Centre. It ceased to exist in the 1960s. This bookshop was owned by Albert Segal, who incidentally wrote the novel Johannesburg Friday. He has been described as “elderly, of medium height, slightly built, with dark hair and glasses and looking rather unhappy”.
Ballard’s Books, situated in Auckland Park, is not specifically Jewish but is owned by a Jew, Mark Baskind (and Gavin Potgieter). The shop was started in 2001 with 4000 books.
Bookdealers of Bryanston, Melville, Rivonia and Rosebank consists of a chain of second-hand bookshops, owned by Doron Locketz, which also specializes in remainders. These shops are piled to their ceilings with books. Melville is strong in contemporary fiction. Rosebank has much on Africana, biography and ‘militaria’. Bryanston has Africana and collectables.
The Bookdealers Chain has varying amounts of Judaica in all its bookshops. However, Bookdealers of Rivonia is the chain’s flagship in this regard. The shop is located in the Cloisters Shopping Centre in Rivonia, Sandton. This shop took over the Jewish stock when the Chain’s Yeoville book shop closed down.
Louis Hyman was the founder owner of Books Unlimited, situated at 39 Greenhill Road Emmarentia. He took it over in 1952 and ran it for what is surely a record-breaking fifty years, until his death in July 2005. His younger son, Brian, continues to operate the business. In 2000, Hyman expressed positive sentiments about the suburb and his bookshop. He summed up the scenario in these terms:
Children grow up and leave. Parents grow old and leave the big house and live in flats. There are always big changes of population, especially lately. More Muslims are moving into the area, and this is good because young people are coming back.
The establishment Butch Burman’s Bookshop was neither Jewish not was the owner Jewish. It is included here to dispel the belief that Burman was Jewish. Burman’s real name was Frank Yeoman and he assumed the name ‘Burman’ when he was a professional wrestler before World War II. He began selling books by 1952, both new and antiquarian. His shop was situated variously in Wanderers’ Street, Plein Street and later in Pretoria Street, Hillbrow. Burman died in 1971. The confusion over his supposed Jewishness almost certainly arose because he had a slightly Jewish appearance. Harald Herzog quotes the journalist and sports writer Paul Irwin as relating the story of Burman’s encounter, during his wrestling days, with a red-headed American ‘cowboy’ in the wrestling ring. The frenzied crowd was on the side of the red-head. “Kill the Yid!” they shouted. Little did they know that the ‘cowboy’ was Jewish, not Butch!
Collectors’ Treasury was founded in 1974 by Maisie Klass, whose two sons, Geoffrey and Jonathan, are the present owners. This establishment is situated at 244 Commissioner Street, and occupies no less than eight floors, consisting of an antique shop, a record store (of over 100 000 vinyl records) and a music studio with a magnificent collection of musical instruments.
The books are a big seller, and include Africana, art books, biographies, sports books, natural history, literature, half a million out-of-print books and book materials such as postcards, pamphlets, old periodicals, prints and posters.
The enterprise has added in recent years, an Internet presence, which, according to Geoffrey Klass results in more orders in one night than a whole month of visitors to the business itself. The internet website www.abebooks.com represents about 5000 dealers worldwide with a stock of some 14 million titles.
The major bookselling enterprise Exclusive Books was founded by Philip Joseph in Hillbrow. It has always concentrated on new books. A few shelves of Judaica are to be found in all the branches. The chain’s flagship in Hyde Park, Sandton, is reasonably well stocked with recent Judaica.
Out-of-Print second hand bookshop, not specifically Jewish in scope, is owned by Wolf Weinek. There are some 2000 second-hand cookbooks in the Cookbook Emporium, which is actually a shop within a shop, and is filled with recipes from bygone eras and exotic locations.
Publix was part of a department store founded by I W Schlesinger, at the north-western corner of Eloff and Commissioner Streets in the Carlton Hotel block
Random Books, which was in business from 1950 until around 1970, was situated in Rissik Street. It was principally a new books establishment. The original owner (unidentified) was succeeded by Mr and Mrs Yudelman, a very friendly Jewish couple. By about 1970, the shop had changed its nature and dealt mainly in stationery. At one time, the shop did offer some Africana, an enterprise run in conjunction with Robin Fryde, later of Thorolds’
Selected Books, owned by Dr H O Simon and Mr Hans Weiss, was situated in the 1940s and 1950s in Hoek Street. The stock consisted mainly of new and second-hand German books and some second-hand English ones. Dr Simon, a well known member of the German-Jewish community, is described by Herzog as being a very friendly man while the shop itself had a very civilised ambience. Herzog remembers Simon as being in his sixties, balding, dressed in a tan sports jacket, collar and tie, often smoking a cigar. In the 1950s, he became quite well known as a participant in quiz programmes on Springbok Radio. He had a very pleasant manner and wore his learning lightly. He also founded, with Dr Franz Auerbach, the Independent Cultural Association.
Robin Fryde has been a landmark name in the antiquarian book trade throughout the second half of the 20th century. Fryde qualified as a lawyer and took over Frank R Thorold’s Africana Bookshop in 1962. He has since then built up the business into one of the best Africana and legal book enterprises in South Africa. In his description of the shop, Michael Shafto quotes Fryde’s view of the business in these terms: “I lay great pride on the mess. A bookshop should never be antiseptic, like a hospital. You know what I mean? Gentle chaos is how I like it”. Shafto found that just about everything to do with South Africa in the matter of books, ancient and modern, is there. Books are stacked to the ceiling, and the shelves have skyscraper proportions.
Fryde has long been acknowledged as one of the country’s leading experts in antiquarian and collectors’ books. His reputation extends internationally and he is held in such high regard that he has served for many years as an Advisor and supplier to the Public Library, Johannesburg and famed Brenthurst Library, Johannesburg, and also to numerous overseas libraries, including the prestigious American Library of Congress. Fryde has an uncanny knack of finding, at times almost miraculously, unique gems of Africana. Denis Godfrey, in his book The Enchanted Door, gives this almost incredible example.
Fryde’s encyclopaedic knowledge of Africana books and their values is unrivalled. The gem of Fryde’s personal collection, which the owner has vowed will never be sold, is a first edition (1907) of the classic Jock of the Bushveld by Percy Fitzpatrick, inscribed to Edward Sivewright, who gave Jock to the author: “When you gave me the ugly puppy, neither of us realized he would grow into this. Please accept this record of his doings as an expression of my gratitude for the gift of Jock himself. Yours ever, Fitz…
This is one of two inscribed first edition copies of this book Fryde has in his private collection. His personal collection of inscribed copies of books is truly remarkable and surely unmatched and unrivalled.
Situated in Harrison Street, Universal Book Agency was stocked with new technical and general books, as well as second-hand technical ones from around 1940 or earlier to around 1970. The owner was Mr Josef Berjak, who usually wore a white dustcoat. Herzog describes him as rather short, slightly podgy and middle-aged, and a man who, although he never smiled, was quite friendly. In 1975, Berjak moved to Harold’s Bookshop in Plein Street.
Vanguard Booksellers existed from the 1940s until the 1960s and was located in Joubert Street. The owner, Miss Fanny Klenerman, (a portly lady, according to Herzog), was a trade union activist. Her assistant was Mr Joe Moed, and he was much in evidence, a man of medium height, with short, curly hair and bespectacled. Around 1960, the shop moved to Commissioner Street but closed down towards the end of the decade. Some time after that, Moed and Klenerman married. She died in 1983. The famous activist, Helen Joseph, worked here for a while. The bookstore was especially strong in art.
Acknowledgment
This article has been greatly enhanced by the author’s access to the manuscript of Harald Herzog’s ‘Bookshops of Johannesburg’. This has been a labour of love by Herzog who has devoted many years to the project which is his passion. Herzog’s work which locates and describes some 200 book shops has been written from his encyclopaedic memory. His detailed descriptions of the bookshops, their internal layout and their owners provide a virtual panorama of the Johannesburg bookselling scenario covering much of the twentieth century. Herzog remains hopeful of finding a publisher which would be a fitting fulfilment of his magnum opus.
Reuben Musiker, a veteran contributor to Jewish Affairs and a long-serving member of its editorial board, is Professor Emeritus of Librarianship and Bibliography, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Library Consultant, South African Jewish Board of Deputies. He has published widely on issues of Jewish and general interest.
